I had heard mixed reviews about this but I couldn’t care less about what other people say. Here’s what I say-

There is a lot going on here. The team is together to get back Loki’s staff with its mysterious power, it is somehow in the clutches of some bad guy and his cronies. They do get it back, but they encounter two new baddies. Scarlet Witch (who is psychic and telekinetic?) and Quicksilver (who is The Flash).

So they’re back together and Iron Man gets the bright idea to use the Asgardian magic to create an A.I. that will ‘protect the world’ – a pre-emptive measure to prevent the destruction of New York we saw in the first movie. Things go wrong (anyone surprised? no?) and then they all have to work really, really hard to save the world again. We also end up with a new bad guy (Ultron) and a new good guy whose name I never learned [according to IMDB his superhero name is Vision]

Any movie that involves an ensemble cast is hard to manage. There are a lot of personalities to keep track of and plot lines to keep twisting through. You can’t give too much focus to any one character lest it the entire movie becomes about them. Plus there were constraints added with trying to set up additional movies and shows.

I think Whedon did an admirable job juggling all the balls for this movie but I’m looking forward to seeing a director’s cut where more of his vision can shine through. The movie is funny, it’s heart warming, it’s full of action and it’s exactly what you should expect. It’s not going to be my favorite Avenger’s movie of all time but they can have my money anyway.